Week 20: Fall is here!

It's fall!!

The leaves have just barely started to change, but there is a definite nip in the air, there are pumpkin and apple-flavoured drinks and sweets everywhere, and there are a surprising amount of Halloween decorations everywhere I go!

This week was pretty uneventful. It was a bit strange, because Tuesday was a holiday (for the autumn equinox)... it's weird having a day off in the middle of the week. I celebrated by making cookies!

I am having some major internet issues right now - my computer has forgotten that it has a wifi adapter (an annoyingly frequent problem) and on top of that our always-flaky wifi signal has been paricularly garbage today. So this is going to be a short post, hopefully to be followed by a later, better post at another time!! :p

On Sunday I went with my friends to check out the Autumn Festival in Odori park. It ended up beong mainly a food festival (to the delight of my friend's kid, who eats like a growing hungry hungry hippo), so when we were finished we wandered up to the Hokkaido University Botanical Garden.

The most exciting news is that I saw a tanuki for sure!! He was just sniffing around on the road late one evening. I was so excited that I immediately told one of my labmates and he was like, "Wow, cool! Yesterday I saw a squirrel!!" He is from Tokyo and is generally amazed by all wildlife, so this was a genunie comparison. I found it funny because squirrels are really a dime a dozen at home (though they are kind of uncommon here), and to me tanuki and squirrels are on an entirely different level of excitingness.

I have also been watching some Trailer Park Boys, and I am really enjoying the Canadian accents. Someone in the lab commented that I have a different accent than Americans do... maybe I should show him this show to recalibrate his North American Accentometer.

Week 19: A boring week

Yay! Short week!

Maybe it's because it was a short week, but I really didn't manage to do anything very exciting this weekend. This is going to be a short post! Maybe also because it was a short week, but I feel like everyone (certainly including me) felt a bit sluggish this week. Most days, the lab was empty by 7 pm which is unheard-of any other week! 

On Saturday I went on an adventure to find a yarn store. Now that it's becoming colder, I have re-caught the knitting bug. I couldn't find my stitch counter anywhere, and I only bought a small stash of yarn with me to Japan, so I was beginning to claw at the walls until I did some googling and found that there is a Kanariya (Canary Yarn) store super close to Sapporo Station. Well, after 30 minutes of wandering in circles downtown, I had no luck finding the store. I did eventually find the Kanariya section in a department store, which was still pretty impressive... I was able to get the stitch counter and ogle some nice yarn. 

After I gave up on finding the yarn store, I went to the nearby giant 100¥ store to grab a few basic items. As I was heading back to the subway station, I passed a fabric store that I have passed a billion times.... and I'm sure you have already guessed, but this turned out to be Kanariya! Sigh. At that point I had a backpack full of soil and I already had a stitch counter, so I didn't check it out, but at least now I know where it is.

I had a backpack full of soil because my pepper plant (Mr. Spicy) has had some weird little white bugs for a little while now, and if I can't get the infestation under control I'm going to need to chuck him because I can't risk infecting the plants at school. I fought valiantly with chopped-up garlic and shower-blasting, but alas. My last resort was to switch out the soil and rinse the roots really well to take care of any larva or eggs. Now both plants are suspiciously droopy ;__; I hope they don't die!

 On Sunday I spent most of the day at school, but when I was oot and aboot walking up the tree-lined road, four deer ran right in front of me!! I think it was an adult male and female and their teenage children. The deer here (Sika deer) are extra cute because even the adult males have white spots, like baby deer in Canada. One of the adults who was ahead of me on the path was sproinging with all four feet in the air. Very cute!

The deer ran up the path that I was going to take, so I followed them at a distance for a little while until just two crossed to the other side; at that point I turned around, because I didn't want to end up in between them. All I could think of was this story from a Neko Case concert and how I didn't want it to happen to me. Don't mess with members of the antelope family! (Warning for naughty language and a violent but HILARIOUS story).

The only other thing I did this week was work a little bit on my Japanese with my favourite 80's show! It's everything that you would imagine an 80's instructional video could be. But it is also actually helpful and I think this series in general has really helped with my vocabulary. 

Week 18: Finally another long weekend!

This is only the second long weekend since I arrived in Japan! The summer has a dearth of holidays, but for the rest of the year there is at least one day off per month (and actually Tuesday of next week is also a holiday, so I guess I really shouldn't complain too much).

On Friday morning I woke up and stumbled to open my blinds.... and found this about two metres away from my window!!

He was all scruffy-lookin' from the rain.

At first he was just grazing and he didn't see me, so luckily I had time to slowly creep to my desk, grab my camera, insert the memory card, and get one quick shot before he saw me and BOLTED into the woods. He was so cute!! It was a great way to start the day!

He is a much more welcome neighbour than the bear, who was a frequent subject of discussion this week. Whenever I ride my bike alone in the dark, I am always a little paranoid about running into the bear, so I jingle my keys in lieu of a bear bell. It must be working because I haven't been eaten yet.

A close encounter with my neighbour

On Saturday I had a great day. I got a very early start to the day because I couldn't sleep, which means that I got all of my lab work done VERY early! :p I then had the day FREE to go on a second-hand store adventure! MAN I love second hand stores! My favourite haunt, which was closed for renovations, had its grand re-opening this weekend and is now super nice! I ran into my neighbours there (they said they knew that it was only a matter of time before I showed up). Sadly, there was no hockey paraphernalia, but I did manage to snag a new coat! I wanted a more casual fall jacket, and the one I got (for about $15!) is actually a winter jacket with a removeable liner!! 

I also had time to go back to the sports store. I really didn't think they would have another hockey stick so quickly, and of course they didn't. But they did have THIS.

As a canuck I was legally obligated to buy this sweater

I had to buy it because I felt bad for it. Who else is going to want a 1992-1997-era Canucks jersey?? When I got it home I noticed that it actually still has the original paper label attached - it has never even been worn! I'm glad I saved it from a sad life of wasting away. I wonder how long it was there. On a related note, I JUST figured out that this logo is a skate. Huh.

On Sunday I had an adventure with 60% of the Bulgarian population of Sapporo (and also a Hungarian)!! We visited the city of Noboribetsu, about 2 hours away by train, and located on the other side of the narrow part of Hokkaido. Now I have been to the Japan Sea AND the Pacific Ocean sides of the island! Both of the gals we travelled with are seasoned Japanese adventurers: they have both lived in Japan for several years and speak Japanese, and by using a day-pass but hopping trains like a bunch of pros we were able to make the trip almost as fast as if we had bought a direct ticket on a much more expensive train!

Noboribetsu is known for its hot springs and its active volcanoes. Once we arrived, our first stop was Jigokudani, aka Hell Valley. Sadly, I will state right now that this is NOT the same Jigokudani that has  wild monkeys; there is another Jigokudani on the main island of Japan where wild monkeys are known to bathe in the hot springs during winter. I REALLY want to go and see this!! But there are no wild monkeys native to Hokkaido, so I guess I'll have to plan a trip.

Anyway, the mascot of Noboribetsu is a little devil (oni), because of the pretty understandable association between hot springs and hell.

Giant Oni clubs

I liked this oni because he is clearly a great dad.

The first thing we saw was a geyser in the middle of town?

It only bubbles up every 3 hours but it was going to beat the band when we arrived!

Then we went for a walk through Hell Valley, which was much more pleasant than it sounds like that would be! Much of the appearance of the valley is due to a previous volcanic eruption. There is another active volcano nearby, a few kilometers away. Because of all the volcanoes, there are tons of hot springs in the area, as well as hot lakes (with surface temperatures of 50 C!) and my favourite feature, a long, winding, and pleasantly warm spring that is a natural foot bath! There was a section with benches were you were encouraged to take your shoes off and enjoy the hot water, and we were more than happy to oblige!

Hell valley

A hot lake!

Natural foot spring

When we were finished in the park, we split into two groups. I didn't have the guts to try (naked) hot springs, but some of the others did. The rest of us chickens went to Date Jidaimura, a historical park that is best known for its shows! Several times a day, actors put on four shows: a comedy show, a samurai show, a "cultural" show, and a NINJA SHOW. The promise of a ninja show was honestly 100% of the reason why I was excited about this whole trip (although everything about the trip ended up being great).

ARE YOU READY FOR NINJAS?

THERE ARE ALSO SAMURAI!!

I guess there was an anime convention or something nearby because there were TONS of people in cosplay at the park. I first grew suspicious when I saw Kenshin hanging around near the park entrance...

Neon orange hair and a maroon shirt: the perfect disguise for a disgraced ronin

but I waved it off because, meh, this park is supposed to be a replica of the time period when that story takes place, so it sort of made sense. Also Japan is weird like that. Then I saw several Kakashis and Naruto pushing baby Kiba in a baby carriage. That almost made sense, because ninjas (and again, Japan), but Kiba in a baby carriage was a little too weird. That was when I started to suspect that these were not employees of the park haha.

Kakashi doesn't have a smartphone in the manga!This costume is totally inaccurate!

A later picture with a bunch of cosplayers, including a Kenshin and baby Kiba with mother Naruto

We didn't have much time to explore the actual park, but what we saw was great. I visited a cat shrine that also had a cat-themed haunted house! Nobody else wanted to go into the haunted house for some strange reason, but I had a great time (until I walked into a wall because it was pitch black. Then I apologized to the wall in English. Then I realized that there was a Japanese guy right behind me and I felt embarrassed). The cat haunted house had several terrifying things including a giant paw that descended from the ceiling, glowing cat eyes in the darkness, and a lot of meowing.

Cat shrine

Warning: haunted cat house this way

Despite our rush, we were still able to catch two of the shows. The first one we saw was the ninja show. It. was. AMAZING!! Of course ninjas are always cool, but man, these actors were also incredible athletes, and I was REALLY impressed with their skill! The park was also really good about providing an English plot summary ahead of time, and the helpful ninja who explained the rules of the show (e.g. no flash photography) also helpfully injected some hilarious English and miming into his explanations. The show was about a guy who decides to become a ninja to avenge his father (as opposed to a samurai, as his adoptive father has arranged). But before he can ninja it up, he and his adoptive father are attacked by ninjas who know the truth of who his father was! An intense ninja battle ensued for ~10 minutes, and involved lots of trap doors, sword fighting, shuriken flinging, and leaping from heights. It was seriously great, and we were in the first row so sometimes the ninjas were close enough to touch!! (I did not touch the ninjas)

The best ninja was the old ninja

Next we saw the "traditional" show, which was about a high-status woman whose samurai lover is disgraced and commits suicide to restore honor to her and her family, except, spoiler alert, he doesn't commit suicide at all, and actually his disohonouring was his way of taking the heat off of his family so that they can be happy and so that he can live a pressure-free life with his classy lady. Also, the part of this samurai is played by a random audience member. Also, this random audience member was my friend's husband. LOL. His lines were written on the back of his fan, and he was also helped along by a character who would have been an extremely racist caricature of a Japanese person if he hadn't been played by a Japanese person. My friends' kid nearly died of embarrassment during this ordeal and she refused to speak to her father for about half an hour afterwards, but my coworker and I were peeing our pants laughing the whole time.

A scene from the "traditional" play

I wish we would have had more time to spend here. It was really cool and I had way too much fun considering that I am theoretically an adult. I definitely want to try to come back before I leave Japan. I REALLY want to visit the "ninja resource" centre. Is it a centre FOR ninjas or to learn ABOUT ninjas? I wish I could tell you.

On the way home, I saw the greatest sign that I have ever seen in my life.

Yes, that is a clam playing hockey. Oh, does that seem strange?

Actually, I guess the small town where I saw this sign has a HOCKEY TEAM so I will need to come back in the winter to check them out!!

Because I knew I would be spending several hours on a train, I brought some knitting with me on our adventure! I haven't knitted or crocheted since coming to Japan (with the exception of making some "chair socks" so that my chair would stop making horrible screeching sounds on the wooden floor), so I was really happy to get back into it. Usually when we are on a long train ride I lend my friend's daughter my iPod or phone so that she can play Angry Birds, but as soon as she saw me knitting she was transfixed and demanded that I teach her. Luckily I planned ahead and I brought some extra needles and yarn for just such an occasion. I have taught several people to knit before, but MAN, she was the fastest learner I have ever seen!! She picked it up really quickly and managed to knit a few rows with hardly any mistakes! I was very impressed. Plus I maintain that knitting is an important life skill for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, so I'm glad that she's prepared.

I don't have any big plans for holiday Monday, but I have already had an amazing weekend!!

Week 17: Lab BBQ!

I FINALLY got my hands on something I have been coveting since I arrived:

It was even made in Canada!

I have always loved hockey, but I've really never played it outside of gym class and the occasional bit of pond hockey. But somehow, being in Japan made me really miss hockey, even though it's not even hockey season! Maybe it's because the Guelph Storm had such an amazing season last year. Anyway, I bought what I believe may be the only hockey stick in Sapporo. I found it in a used sports store, and it was the only one they had and it had been there for several months. The other second hand store nearby is closed for renovations, but I'm hoping they might have a second stick when they reopen.

I ran out and got it on Saturday morning, because on Saturday afternoon we had a lab BBQ in the backyard of the apartment where I live! The barbeque was AMAZING!! We had two grills - one for veggies and one for meat - and there was a huge variety of different veggies to grill, including corn and eggplant and asparagus and a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms! There were also HUGE hamburgers and steaks and chicken wings for the meat eaters. 

A small selection of the veggies ready for the grill!

My prof and his family manning the meat grill

My labmate's son couldn't make it (because he was doing a ROBOT BUILDING enrichment activity!), but his daughter came, and she brought some crazy bubble blowing toy! I have never even heard of these, but apparently they used to be common in the 70s? The toy comes with a narrow straw and some tubes of goo. You squeeze a blob of goo onto the end of the straw, then blow into it. If you do it right, you end up with a giant bubble with about the consistency of a bubble gum bubble! My labmate's baby, who had spent the first hour of the picnic getting frustrated at normal soap bubbles, loved these plasticy ones :p

The star of the BBQ

When we were too full to eat any more, we played some badminton and my new favourite sport, indoor sock hockey (aka sockey)! To play, just give a hockey stick to a person who has never held one before, make them play goalie on a  floor mat, and kick a rolled up pair of socks at them. Instant fun!

I made peanut butter blondies and a yeasted plum cake for dessert, so we had a coffee party at the end of the evening to cap off the party. 

It's beginning to feel a little bit like the end of summer now. The leaves are all still green, but there is a definite bite in the air most mornings. I actually had to wear a coat a few times last week. I did some investigating and it looks like, thankfully, soy hot chocolates from Starbucks are indeed vegan in Japan, so I might have to make a pilgrimage in the next couple of weeks. I do like summer, but winter is my favourite time of year (and fall is a close second!) so I am ready for a change. I am hoping that there will be fewer bugs in the winter because I am getting pretty tired of chasing weird blond daddy longlegs spiders out of my room. It's gotten so bad that I can't keep any books beside my bed, because within a day or two there will be spiders living in them!

I heard that the legendary bear of the research station was spotted (by someone more reliable than me!) in the park that is directly attached to the woods where I live. So maybe the bear really is real! I always make sure to close my window at night, because the only thing that MIGHT be worse than finding a giant spider in my room would be finding a giant brown bear. I saw one of the feral cats on Sunday and I tried to lure him to come home with me, but he was having none if it.  I could have really used his help because there are several flies in my room (I guess we left the doors open too long during the BBQ). Maybe I can convince my parents to mail me my cats....